In some cases, you might need to regenerate the certificates and security credentials (private and public keys) that are generated by Puppet’s built-in PKI systems.

For example, you might have a Puppet master you need to move to a different network in your infrastructure, or you might have experienced a security vulnerability that makes existing credentials untrustworthy.

Note: There are other, more automated ways of doing this. We recommend using Bolt to regenerate certs when needed. See the Bolt documentation for more information. There is also a puppetlabs-certregen module but is currently not supported with Puppet Server 6.

Important: The information on this page describes the steps for regenerating certs in an open source Puppet deployment. If you use Puppet Enterprise do not use the information on this page, as it leaves you with an incomplete replacement and non-functional deployment. Instead, PE customers must refer to one of the following pages:

Regardless of your situation, regenerating your certs involves the following three steps, described in detail in the sections below:

On your master, you’ll clear the certs and security credentials, regenerate the CA, and then regenerate the certs and security credentials.

You’ll clear and regenerate certs and security credentials for any extensions.

You'll clear and regenerate certs and security credentials for all agent nodes.

CAUTION: This process destroys the certificate authority and all other certificates. It is meant for use in the event of a total compromise of your site, or some other unusual circumstance. If you just need to replace a few agent certificates, use the puppetserver ca clean --certname <name> command on your Puppet master and then follow step 3 for any agents that need to be replaced.

Step 1: Clear and regenerate certs on your Puppet master

On the Puppet master hosting the CA:

Back up the SSL directory, which should be /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/ssl/. If something goes wrong, you can restore this directory so your deployment can stay functional. However, if you needed to regenerate your certs for security reasons and couldn’t, you should get some assistance as soon as possible so you can keep your site secure.

Stop the agent service:

sudo puppet resource service puppet ensure=stopped

Stop the master service.

For Puppet Server, run:

sudo puppet resource service puppetserver ensure=stopped

Delete the SSL directory:

sudo rm -r /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/ssl

Regenerate the CA and master's cert:

sudo puppetserver ca setup

You should see this message: Notice: Signed certificate request for ca.

Start the Puppet master service by running:

sudo puppet resource service puppetserver ensure=running

Start the Puppet agent service by running this command:

sudo puppet resource service puppet ensure=running

At this point:

You have a new CA certificate and key.

Your Puppet master has a certificate from the new CA, and it can field new certificate requests.

The Puppet master rejects any requests for configuration catalogs from nodes that haven’t replaced their certificates. At this point, it is all of them except itself.

When using any extensions that rely on Puppet certificates, like PuppetDB, the Puppet master won’t be able to communicate with them. Consequently, it might not be able to serve catalogs, even to agents that do have new certificates.

Step 2: Clear and regenerate certs for any extension

You might be using an extension, like PuppetDB or MCollective, to enhance Puppet. These extensions probably use certificates from Puppet’s CA in order to communicate securely with the Puppet master. For each extension like this, you’ll need to regenerate the certificates it uses.

Many tools have scripts or documentation to help you set up SSL, and you can often just re-run the setup instructions.

PuppetDB

PuppetDB users should first follow the instructions in Step 3: Clear and regenerate certs for agents, below, since PuppetDB re-uses Puppet agents’ certificates. After that, restart the PuppetDB service. See Redo SSL setup after changing certificates for more information.

Step 3: Clear and regenerate certs for Puppet agents

To replace the certs on agents, you’ll need to log into each agent node and do the following steps.